A bus service between Liverpool and Heswall is “leaving passengers stranded” along the route according to a candidate for next month’s local elections.
Yesterday, Stagecoach revealed some of its services, including the 471 route between Liverpool and Heswall, in Wirral, will face disruption until May 6. Lucy Johnson, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Wirral Council seat of Heswall, said residents are becoming increasingly frustrated by the unreliability of the 471 service, due to repeated timetable changes and cancelled services.
Ms Johnson said: “This week, Stagecoach was supposed to be re-introducing a half-hourly direct service from Heswall to Liverpool. But on Monday they announced that several buses would not be running for at least the next fortnight because of ‘driver shortage’.
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“Merseytravel are still promoting the 471 and 472 service as a ‘Quality Bus route’, claiming that ‘buses run every 10 minutes throughout Monday to Saturday daytimes’, but that is just a joke. While Arriva still runs a reliable service, Stagecoach is frequently leaving passengers stranded along their route, which runs via Irby.
“The modern hybrid electric buses with Wi-Fi have been taken off the route too. We are supposed to be helping the battle against climate change by tempting people to leave their cars at home and commute to work or go shopping by bus, but you need to be able to depend on frequent, reliable buses. And currently, Stagecoach is simply failing to deliver.”
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “This is yet another example of how our region’s deregulated bus network just does not work for some places. Private operators are able to pick and choose what routes to properly service with no real consideration for the people or communities they are cutting off and leaving behind.
“It’s exactly why we’re working to roll back the 1980s and Mrs Thatcher’s disastrous deregulation of bus travel. I want our region to have a London-style transport system that makes travelling around as quick, cheap, green and reliable as possible. Good buses are central to that. We recently announced our intentions to take greater control of our bus network, choosing franchising as our preferred model of governance.
“This would give us control over routes, timetables and fares, and would mean proper investment in new modern vehicles across the region. The clue is in the name: it will be public transport designed around the needs of the people who use it – not just shareholders.”
A spokesperson for Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire said: "We are sorry that passengers using our services between Liverpool and Heswall have been inconvenienced by the recent disruption to some of our services, but a national shortage of drivers affecting the bus industry has meant some that journeys have not operated as timetabled.
"We have put in place a number of measures which we expect to help deliver a more reliable service in the weeks ahead. We have been busy recruiting new drivers, and are focused on getting our new team members through their 12-week training programme and on the road. From May 9, we will also be making some short-term timetable changes to improve the reliability of key services and keep passengers connected across our most popular routes.
“We will continue to keep our passengers regularly updated through the live tracking map facility on our app, on our website and social media channels. We are working hard to resume our full service as quickly as possible, giving advanced notice of any planned alterations to our services in the meantime. We would like to thank all of our passengers for their patience.”
All the candidates standing in Heswall for the May 5 local elections:
- Ann Ainsworth (Labour)
- Barbara Burton (Green Party)
- Paul Connolly (Conservative)
- Lucy Johnson (Lib Dem)
